Escape to Death
by girly devil
Summary: Harry Potter stood alone in the middle of the burnt out battlefield wondering what he was going to do now.AU as i don't use HBP.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **_Everything in the Harry Potter world belongs to JK Rowling and no money is being made from this story._

**Title:**_ Escape to Death_

**Rating:**_ T (may increase later)_

**Warnings**_: character death_

Harry Potter stood alone in the middle of the burnt out battlefield wondering what he was going to do now. He was alone because in the heat if the battle he had been drawn deep within the Death Eater lines so that Voldemort only had to deal with him, it showed how afraid he was of Harry. Fear didn't stop Harry though, in the end all it had taken to destroy Voldemort was a powerful and well timed Killing Curse. It was so powerful in fact that it left Harry where he was standing now, alone amongst a pile of bodies. The good thing for Harry's conscience though was that they were not all dead. The magical backlash created by his powerful spell had stunned everyone in the vicinity. There were also little fires burning all over the place on which he had cast a spell to contain them so they didn't spread to the people. These fires were the spells that had been in midair as the backlash had swept through the field. It would take a long time before the grounds and wards of Hogwarts would recover from this, but they would eventually. Albus Dumbledore had survived and the rebuilding would fall to him and he would no doubt do a marvellous job as usual.

Harry ignoring his injuries walked over to where the light side had fallen. He walked amongst them, identifying, thinking. These were the people who had been the bars on his prison in the Wizarding world and yet at the same time most of them were people who had made the captivity easier. There were Ron and Hermione, loyal to the end. Next to them was Cornelius Fudge who had denied Voldemort's existence until seconds before his curse had killed him. Rufeous Scrimgeour, the Minister of magic who had too much courage to stand at the back of the battle and who had died instead of surviving to stand the Wizarding world back on its feet again. The Weasley family of whom only six children remained. Arthur had killed his own child when Percy proved to be a Death Eater, to stop him from killing anyone besides his mother for whom he was too late to save. Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy lay next to Dumbledore, spies all the way through. Here Harry knelt and removed their Dark Marks something only a parselmouth could do, hopefully now they would be able to step out of their own prisons.

It was hard to tell who was alive and who was dead in the majority of cases.

Harry hated this. Although the outcome was good and the light had won, he couldn't forget that at the age of seventeen, before he had even received his NEWT scores he had become a murderer. Sure many people had judged Voldemort and found him deserving of death, all Harry had wished for was that he hadn't had to be the executioner. Everyone had pinned their hopes on him and yeas the day before his graduation he had come through for them but now Harry was beginning to think that it was time for him to find the hope that had been so lacking in his own life.

Dumbledore who he had come to think of as a grandfather had said to him once 'it is our choices that define us' and Harry was preparing to make the biggest choice of his life.

He was ready.

It was time for Harry Potter to die.

**A/N:** At the moment this is just a one-shot after I have progressed further in my other stories I will start to update this one. I hope you all enjoy it and review if you want to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **_Everything in the Harry Potter world belongs to JK Rowling and no money is being made from this story._

**Chapter 2**

"Brriinngg" the phone rang waking Raven MacTavish with a start. It took him a while to realize what the sound actually was before he picked up the handset.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Dr MacTavish?"

"Yes may I help you?"

"This is Mercy Hospital calling, your wife and children are currently in the emergency room."

"Oh" Raven said shocked "can you tell me what happened?"

"There was a car accident that is all I know"

"Thank-you I will be there soon" Raven dropped the handset back in its cradle, sitting there dumbly for a moment before jumping up to leave. It wasn't long before he was out the back kick-starting the motorbike since Rachael had taken the car, he absentmindedly wondered what was left of it.

They lived only a ten minute drive from the hospital and so it wasn't long before he was parking the bike on the footpath outside the doors and running inside, helmet still on his head,

"Where can I find Rachael MacTavish?" he asked while removing the helmet.

"Dr MacTavish?" at his nod she continued "if you would wait here I will fetch her doctor before you go in to see her"

"Dr MacTavish? I am Dr White, before I can let you in to see your wife I must tell you her condition. Before I continue though are you a medical doctor? Yes? Well that helps things a lot. Your wife was in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. The speed at which he was going pushed the engine in to the front seat which crushed her legs and almost severed her torso" Raven paled, he knew what that meant. "Because of the extreme bleeding and the toxic shock from her intestines we were unable to completely stabilise her. We have put her on life support until you arrived so that you may say goodbye. You also have the final decision on whether or not we pull the plug, though as you should be aware she will likely never wake again and will eventually reach a stage where even the life support will not be able to keep her alive."

Raven stumbled over to a chair his face in his hands. He looked up at the doctor warily "and my children how are they?"

"Because they were in the backseat, they escaped relatively unscathed only a few cuts and bruises. They are currently in the paediatric ward."

"Thank-you" he whispered hoarsely. "May I see my wife now?"

"Certainly follow me" the doctor led him to a single room at the back of the emergency department.

"Oh Rachael," he whispered when he saw her "I am sorry Rachael, I know how much you hate driving, I should never have made you pick up the kids from day care. I love the children right? You know that don't you? They are our pride and joy. I remember your face when you held them for the first time. It was in this very hospital, remember? I was an intern on duty that night; they ran to get me when you arrived. It's the children's second birthday tomorrow. I am glad we took all those photos, they will always know what you look like." Raven paused, tears streaming down his cheeks "we also met in this hospital. It was ten years ago. You were the nurse assigned to stitch me up, you were so gentle. For me, it was love at first sight. We got married on Halloween three years later. I am so sorry. I hope you see your heaven, you deserve it. Maybe one day I will see you again." At that he leant forward, hugged her and broke down completely every so often muttering "goodbye" or "sorry". It was a good fifteen minutes before he was composed enough to go and get the doctor. Once the life support was turned off he kissed Rachael's forehead one last time and left the room to go and find his children.

"I'm here to see the MacTavish children"

"Right this way sir" the nurse led him to a room that had two sleeping children in it. "You may stay in this bed tonight Dr MacTavish"

"Thank-you"" when the nurse was gone he climbed onto the bed pulled the two small cradle-beds that held the last of his family in them as close to him as he could and let his grief out. Tomorrow he would decide what to do.

The funeral went off without a hitch, now he was back at his house packing it up. He had gotten rid of Rachael's stuff, the memories were too painful. All that was left was one box for each of the twins and two for himself. He was leaving all the furniture behind. He didn't have much money but didn't think it was too big of an issue where he was going. He took one last look around his home for the past ten years and sighed. He was going to miss it all, especially Rachael. He used his first bit of magic in ten years and shrunk the boxes putting them on the tray of the pushchair. He went out the front door, locked it and gave the keys to the realtor waiting. With that he walked away from his old life and toward his new one.

Many miles away in the Headmaster's office of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, an ornament in the shape of a lightning bolt lit up. Seeing it, the normally unflappable Albus Dumbledore spat out the mouthful of tea he just drunken. He hurried to the fireplace to call the remaining seven members of the Order of the Phoenix. It wasn't long before sitting in front of Albus were Ron and Hermione Weasley, Neville and Luna Longbottom, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape and standing on the Potion Master's left, Draco Malfoy-Snape.

"We are all that remains after the disbanding of the Order," Albus began "and we are all here because we believe that Harry Potter is still alive. Finally after ten years we have our first sign that our hope is not in vain." And he pointed at the glowing lightning bolt. They all looked at it except for Severus who drawled "Merlin Albus, could you have sounded more pompous?"

Albus' eyes twinkled "probably, but it did sound good, after all we have waited a long time for this. Severus, could I get you to trace it and then tell me what you observe?"

"Certainly, although I have always thought that maybe Potter doesn't want to be found; we did ask a lot of him you know.

"I know Severus" Albus said heavily.

Severus nodded "I shan't be long."

While waiting for Severus to return the rest of them retired to the Great Hall as it was summer holidays and no awkward questions would be asked as to why they were there.

Severus returned twenty minutes later. "I went to where the signature was; all I found was an empty house. The realtor who was there said that it belonged to a Rachael Owens who had just died and that her husband was selling the place. There was no sign of Harry anywhere." They all sat pensively for a minute until the lightning bolt which they had brought down with them suddenly gave a high pitched shriek and went black. "Oh dear, well wherever Harry is now we can no longer track him through his magic. We will find him though" Dumbledore reassured them.

Raven had caught the train to London. He paused for a bit before going inside the Leaky Cauldron. He was confident he wouldn't be recognized; he had brown hair which he constantly died, grown long and pulled back into a ponytail, he had finally had his growth spurt and now stood at about 6'3", his scar had faded and could no longer be seen, the only thing that remained to tie him to Harry Potter was his green eyes; though even they were distant from what they used to be recent events making them rather dead looking. He didn't even have any glasses to give him away as he had had his eyesight corrected bys surgery citing that it would be easier that way as a doctor as his reason. Raven shrugged, he was going to have to do this at some stage so he took a deep breath and walked into the pub. He had to give tom credit since he hardly batted an eye at the two sleeping children in the muggle pushchair. Raven just smiled and went through to the entrance into Diagon Alley. The first thing he needed to do was go to Gringotts. He had two vaults that wouldn't connect him to Harry Potter as no one knew that he had them.

When Raven stepped into Salazar Slytherin's vault for the first time he was pleasantly surprised. There was a nice pile of gold so he no longer had to worry about money and many books. It was one of these books which caught his eye. It was titled simply 'Cloaking Spells'. He checked the twins who were still asleep though how he didn't know and sat down to read. Ten minutes later he had reached a spell that was designed to cloak a person's magical signature. Although he doubted that anyone was still looking for him he decided to cast it anyway. A part of the spell was to create a false signature that other people could sense if they decided to check. As the blue light flashed around him Raven realized that if he was going to move back into the Wizarding World he was going to have to get used to using magic again. He hadn't lost any of his power so it shouldn't be hard he would just have to be careful to not come across as too powerful; he wouldn't want o be recognized as Harry Potter for something do silly.

Raven left Gringott's in a better mood and immediately went to Madame Malkin's Robes for all Occasions. He had robes but they were 'Harry Potter's' and were too short for him. He also wanted to buy some wizarding clothes for the twins.

Walking out of Madame Malkin's Raven saw a tattoo parlour. He had always wanted a tattoo and it would serve to distance him even further from Harry Potter as Harry was too much the Golden Boy to ever do something like that. Raven came out of the parlour half an hour later with a phoenix on his back between his shoulder blades and a snake which was supposed to be coiled around the Phoenix's legs but instead had decided to take up residence on the back of his hand. Magical tattoos, there was just no arguing with them. Raven was glad for the phoenix. It had been the first picture he had seen when he walked in and it had great symbolism for him. He would rise from the ashes of his two former lives and become only Raven MacTavish, the man he wanted to be.

**A/N: **_well there is the second chapter. I will warn you all now that this is likely to be slow updating, but I hope you all enjoy the story and review if you want to._


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Everything in the Harry Potter world belongs to JK Rowling and no money is being made from this story

**Disclaimer: **_Everything in the Harry Potter world belongs to JK Rowling and no money is being made from this story._

**A/N:** _thank you to all those who reviewed and who are still reading this after the long wait which I apologise for. Enjoy!_

**Chapter 3**

Raven finished the rest of his shopping and ducked into the leaky cauldron for lunch. While ordering his meal from Tom he asked the man if he had a copy of the Daily Prophet he could read. Tom sent it over with his food. As he was absently skimming the pages while feeding the twins he came across an advert for a job. He grinned, it was exactly what Raven McTavish, the man wanted to do. He grabbed parchment and quill and sent off a letter with his newly acquired owl.

He received a letter the next morning and exclaimed out loud. He had an interview at ten tomorrow morning. It was perfect; he even had a foolproof story planned out.

The next morning Raven was up early. He didn't want to be late but at the same time didn't wasn't to risk apparating with the children, so he was going to take the Knight Bus to Hogsmeade. The only thing with that though was that there was no set schedule, thus he was up early.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the bus ride and soon Raven was strolling along the path from Hogsmeade towards Hogwarts.

He wasn't too surprised when McGonagall met him at the gates. "Mr MacTavish?" Raven nodded deciding to let the mistaken title slip since she was a witch after all and likely didn't know the muggle terms.

"I am Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Head of this school and teacher of Transfiguration." Raven smiled "Oh and these must be your children, what are their names if I may ask?"

Raven chuckled "Of course you may, their names are Jayden and Alexander" pointing to the correct child. "You are likely to mix them up though as they are only two and as far as I can tell they look exactly identical. They are well behaved though." That led in to a discussion about twins that lasted all the way up to the castle. Minerva had just finished describing the Weasly twins and their antics when they reached the Headmaster's office. "I will leave you now. Just go up the stairs that will take you to Albus."

"Thank you very much Minerva" Raven said as she turned away.

"You are very welcome"

Raven knocked hesitantly with his foot on the Headmaster's door at the top of the stairs. The quick "come in" and opening door was welcome as he has left the pushchair at the bottom of the stairs in the Entrance Hall and the twins were getting heavy.

"Dr MacTavish, please have a seat. Would you like some tea?" Raven smiled and nodded, still the same old Dumbledore. "Now tell me, what qualifications do you have in defence?"

"Well I was training under Defence Master Joseph Strand after being home schooled. I also fought in the war" everything true so far, the only problem was it was true for Harry Potter not Raven MacTavish. "I was preparing to sit my Mastery when Joe died and without a Master to back me I was unable to finish my Mastery" as a Mastery achieved was a matter of public record he wouldn't b able to claim it unless he came out as Harry Potter first, this was the next best thing though. "I have done independent study since Joe's death though"

"That is fine, were you not able to find another Master when Joe died?"

"No, everyone I could find had an apprentice already and none of them has Joe's reputation, did you know he trained the great Harry Potter himself?"

"Yes I did. Now, I understand you recently lost your wife? So you will have no trouble moving into the castle?"

Well that was a bit callous thought Raven "None whatsoever. I take it you are offering me the DADA position then?" at Albus' nod Raven continued "What about my children?"

"They will be fine. Either our Nurse Poppy or Draco Malfoy-Snape," Raven's heart clenched at the name, his love was taken then. "Or one of the house elves or maybe another teacher will be able to take care of them when you can't."

"Draco Malfoy-Snape sir, is he not a teacher?"

"In part, He is Severus Malfoy-Snape's assistant; he helps him to brew the potions he can no longer manage on his own. He also teaches the first years Wizarding Customs, something I realized needed to be taught after the war."

Raven was glad that they had rectified that mistake, it was hard for a muggleborn or raised when they first came to Hogwarts.

"Can Severus no longer manage on his own sir?"

"You don't know the story of Severus Snape?"

"No I have been living mainly in the muggle world"

"Ah well, you see Severus was a spy for the Light since the First War with Voldemort and thus had the Dark Mark. At the end of the Second War when Harry Potter triumphed over the Dark Lord Voldemort, the destruction of Voldemort also destroyed the connection of the Dark Marks. This caused the Dark magic contained within the Mark to start killing the bearer. The longer the connection had been in place, the faster death moved because of the greater amount of Dark magic. Now I believe that Harry Potter who was a parselmouth and thus the only person capable of removing the Marks and magic removed both Severus' and Draco's Marks before he disappeared. Thus instead of dying; only Severus' left arm 'died' leaving it paralysed. Draco who had only had the Mark a short time felt no effects at all. That is why he is able to help Severus"

"Oh. I assume your nurse looked at them? Because the Dark Mark was one of my areas of study and should he wish it I could study him and see if the paralysis is reversible. As I am also a muggle doctor I can look at it from this angle as well."

"You have medical training? That is a good thing for a DADA teacher to have. Now when can you move into the castle?"

"As soon as possible as I am currently staying in the Leaky Cauldron. I don't know how long my money will last though."

"Splendid, you can move in today then. The only room I have left with an office attached is in the dungeons though, is that alright with you?"

"Fine, if you can direct me to where it is, I will move in now as I have all my possessions with me."

"Certainly, Miffy!" when a house elf appeared Albus told her to take the new Professor down to his quarters in the dungeons. Oh and Raven, I will talk to Severus for you about his arm as it can be quite a touchy subject for him"

"Thank you Headmaster, for everything"

Raven's quarters in the dungeons were quite comfortable and it didn't take long to set up. He then spent the next few days reacquainting himself with the castle though to everyone else he was 'learning his way around'. On these excursions he also set up, with the Headmaster's permission wards that wouldn't allow Jay or Alex down or up stairs without a guardian present.

When he first stepped into the Defence classroom he was surprised that he could actually feel the curse that was obviously still in effect on the position. Deciding to play the complete ignoramus he hurried to the Headmaster's office.

"Albus, I have just been in my classroom and are you aware that there is a curse which is concentrated there?"

"Yes I am. You can feel it? That is a definite improvement on all the other teachers I have had. You see it is that curse which makes me have to look for a new DADA teacher every year. But if you can feel it, may I ask you to have a go at breaking it?"

"Certainly, after all Dark Arts and their defence are my specialty."

Two weeks after he arrived and two weeks before the start of term Severus approached Raven on his way back to his quarters.

"Albus said you would like to study my arm from the perspective of Dark Arts, Defence and Muggle medicine?"

"Yes I did. I assume they only tried medi-magic on it?" when Severus nodded he continued "well that is only one way to look at it. I am not promising anything and it will require a lot of meetings but I am prepared to try. Oh and if you can ask your husband if he is willing to let me examine his arm as well, that might help"

"That won't be a problem; I would do anything for Severus." Came Draco's voice from behind Raven "I am Draco Malfoy-Snape, pleased to meet you."

"likewise. Do you mind if we set our first meeting/appointment at a later date as I have worn my magic quite thin studying the curse in the Defence classroom?" Severus looked interested. "You can come in and meet my children if you wish and I will be happy to talk though" with that Raven turned around to open his portrait.

"why do you have a portrait? Most staff just have a password protected door"

"I needed a portrait so that it would recognize my twins otherwise I would need to be here every time they returned from the areas outside the rooms I have warded for them. Though they do need someone to open it to get out. If you follow me to their room they should still be asleep."

When they reached the twins' room Raven stopped suddenly causing the other two to almost crash into him. "no, they are not here. Where are they? They were asleep and no one was in here with them so they shouldn't have been able to get out. No, this cannot be happening again, I am sick of people disappearing around me" Severus and Draco looked at Raven in surprise before pulling him out of the room and into the lounge to calm him down. As Draco did that, Severus called a House-elf asking it to find Professor MacTavish's sons. Fifteen minutes later when the House-elf returned they had managed to calm Raven out of his panic and despair. That is, until the House-elf reported that they could find no sign of the children. That was too much for Raven who jumped up and stormed out of the room. Pausing only to tell the House-elf to inform Dumbledore what had happened, the two married men raced after the other.

They caught up to him as he stopped in the middle of the quidditch pitch already gathering power to him. Severus and Draco erected shields around themselves and watched in awe as the man gathered power the likes of which they had only ever seen Albus Dumbledore wield. The magic created a wind which formed a funnel around Raven. Out of the corner of his eye Severus saw that the rest of the teachers had come running out to see what the magic was, he didn't spare them a second glance however, as his attention was focused on Raven.

When the funnel dropped Severus and Draco took a couple of steps forward and thus were able to hear Raven's whisper "they are in the Shrieking Shack" before he collapsed. Draco ran to Raven while Severus turned around and sent Filius Flitwick and McGonagall to retrieve Raven's children from the Shrieking Shack. Albus came forward "take him to the Hospital Wing, I will meet you there."

When Draco walked in to the Hospital Wing with an unconscious Raven in his arms Poppy scowled. "Let me guess he was the cause of the magical disturbance?" as Severus nodded her scowl deepened. "He has already been to me once today for a magical revive potion after studying the DADA curse. Silly man. There is nothing I can do except let him rest and recover on his own. Lay him over there."

Raven slept for the next week. The children were fine. They were found tied up but were unharmed. The most surprising thing about the week Raven was in bed was who the children wanted to spend time with. They were fine if they were in the Hospital Wing with Raven even if he was asleep or surprisingly with Severus and Draco. If they were with anyone else without Severus or Draco present the children would cry and make a fuss. At one point Albus made the comment that it was a good thing considering Draco was going to be helping look after them during the school year.

Raven came awake to a ceiling that he hadn't seen in over 10 years but was still able to recognize immediately. Great he thought to himself all it needs now is for Professor Dumbledore to walk through the door and I will feel as though I am in school again.

Raven looked up as the door opened.

"Raven you are awake. Are you feeling alright, should I call Madame Pomfrey?" Albus inquired. Raven groaned, speak of the devil and he shall appear.

"No, no Albus I am fine, where are my children?"

"They are fine and with Severus and Draco no doubt, they took quite a shine to them you know."

"Well they are good people so I understand it perfectly."

"Yes indeed. Now Raven we must talk about what happened." Raven cringed, what was he going to say? "Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt you in any way?"

Raven thought for a minute "No Albus, I, Raven MacTavish do not have any enemies of any kind."

"If you are sure then. We will treat this as a one-off thing then especially because the boys were unharmed. I will leave you now. Don't forget to call a House-elf if you need anything."

"I will Albus and thank you for everything"

TBC


End file.
